


Window

by paralleltonone



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Unrequited Love, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 09:19:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paralleltonone/pseuds/paralleltonone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry can't close his blinds, and that leaves Niall on the outside looking in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Window

          Niall likes his backyard. It's peaceful. The people who'd owned the flat before him even had a little flower garden with a small pond in the middle of it that Niall somehow managed to keep up. His place is situated between Harry and Louis', and Liam's, and a fence on either side is all that separates their small yards. Each flat has a bedroom that faces the yard; Liam never forgets to close the blinds to his bedroom on the second floor. Sometimes, he waves at Niall through the window as he does this if he spots him down below. Harry will look down at Niall from his bedroom too, sometimes, and he'll wave as well. Niall will smile back, but Harry never closes those blinds.

          At first, it kind of bothers Niall because he has to watch Harry be Harry in his bedroom, and that mostly consists of Harry being naked in that bedroom. Then Louis starts coming into Harry's bedroom. At first, Niall would see him pop in for this or that, but then he'd go in and wouldn’t leave. Niall would go out to his garden in the mornings with his guitar and a mug of tea and, through Harry’s open window, see Louis waking up there. It seems to happen infrequently at first until it seems that Louis’ room that Niall knows is across the hall never gets used by the older man. What started off as a couple of days out the week of Niall noticing Louis there soon becomes an every day thing where Niall looks up to that window and is able to see Louis climbing out of Harry’s bed while Harry parades around that same room as naked as the day he was born. It should be weird, Niall kept thinking, but it doesn’t seem to phase either of them.

          One day, he’d been so busy staring at the two of them as they moved about the room, almost as if he was trying to read their lips, that he didn’t notice Zayn tapping on Liam’s window and waving to him excitedly. When he finally did spot him, it provided a nice distraction because Zayn was dressed for the day and he was at Liam’s. They were about to go somewhere and Niall was going to intrude on that because he hoped it was breakfast. He took one last look at Harry’s window before hurrying through his apartment to Liam’s to stop them from leaving without him, and he was sure that he’d caught the tail-end of a kiss.

          Niall mentioned it to Liam and Zayn over breakfast. Liam thought Niall was overthinking the entire situation. After he got over his annoyance at the newly acquired knowledge that Harry didn’t ever close his blinds, Zayn admitted that he wouldn’t have been surprised. Niall’s breakfast of French toast, eggs and sausage had just hit the table next to Zayn’s plate with his turkey bacon and bagel sandwich when two familiar voices could be heard coming their way. Harry squeezed into the booth alongside him and Zayn, and Louis plopped right next to Liam, and throughout breakfast, they were friendly. They were normal. They were nothing like what Niall saw through that window.

          It was back to work within a few days, and Niall was sure that it’d come across to Zayn and Liam then as they all spent more time together, but it hadn’t. And then he had to listen to Liam Payne gloating about how right he’d been. He was wrong, though, and Niall knew it because the day before they’d left for Spain, Niall had caught more than a tail-end of a kiss. It was a usual morning at home with his tea, his guitar, his garden, and Harry’s naked body with the addition of a new factor: Harry and Louis’ morning make-out session in Harry’s bed. He’d tried to tell Liam, but Liam told him to stop looking in Harry’s window. He told Zayn. Zayn asked if he wanted him to talk to Harry about closing his window. Then there was Harry and Louis: sitting on opposite ends of a couch during interviews, giving each other brotherly hugs, doing nothing out of the ordinary, and he hated them for making him seem like a crazy person.

          Niall knew he wasn’t crazy, though, when they were back at their flats a month after they’d left them. Niall was in his garden that evening they got home. His peonies were dying, and Niall was pondering if he could save them and whether or not to replace them if he pulled them the next day when he glanced up at Harry’s window. He knew for sure then that he wasn’t crazy because there was Harry’s naked body, as usual, his ass cheeks pressed against the window with Louis on the other side of him. He wasn’t crazy and he wanted to prove that, but he was met with nothing but sleepy mumbles and chidings for him to get some rest before Liam hung up the telephone. Still, Niall stayed in that garden and watched what should have been a very intimate moment. It probably could have been had Harry believed in closing those damn blinds.

          The next morning, Niall was in his garden saying goodbye to his favorite flowers. He’d decided to just pull the pink and white beauties up and replace them, thinking they were too far beyond saving. Niall had almost missed the loud banging against glass from up ahead, and when he looked up to Harry’s window, there was Harry smiling and waving and fully dressed for a change, making motions that Niall soon realized were him extending an invite to get breakfast. Niall had his peonies to tend to, though, and his comfort level with Harry after what he’d seen was a little wonky, but still, he hadn’t had breakfast yet, so he wasn’t about to miss out on that.

          Louis hadn’t joined them – Harry said he’d gone to meet a friend – and Niall was grateful for it because his presence would have probably upped the awkwardness at the table. Niall wanted to approach the subject, wanted to ask Harry about him and Louis, and he almost did until Harry was asking if he was going to eat the strawberries on his plate, seemingly answering Niall’s question for him when he stuck his hand over to take several. Niall wanted to ask then, but he didn’t, and he didn’t ask the next day. He didn’t ask weeks or months later, either. He never did.

          On tour, Harry and Louis never deterred from their usual selves, which could have been misconstrued to being more than friendship, anyway. In that bedroom, though, Niall saw much more. For months, he watched them every now and then from his yard. He watched as Louis started storing things in Harry’s drawers and closets and he later found out Louis’ room had become a sort of catch-all the two boys called a den with Louis’ bed pushed against a corner wall. He watched them enjoy late-nights together then wake up wrapped together, beaming brightly upon spotting the other. He watched them over months until Harry went to Cheshire for his aunt’s birthday party, and left Louis behind. When Niall was up the next morning with his tea and his guitar, it wasn’t Harry and Louis he spotted in the window. No, that woman slinking out of bed with Louis was definitely not Harry.

          It wasn’t the same. Even Niall could see that. He’d seen the passion and love that resounded between Harry and Louis, and it wasn’t there that morning. It wasn’t there when Louis smiled at the brunette or when his lips touched hers or when he laid her down to that bed. Harry’s bed. His bed. Their bed. It wasn’t there when Louis checked the time and tossed her clothes back to her before pulling the sheets off of the bed, and then beginning to straighten his and Harry’s room. It wasn’t the same because Louis felt nothing for her and that love just wasn’t there, but it didn’t matter.

          And though it returned when Harry came back later that night and he and Louis made love like the world was ending, it was gone by the next morning when Harry found the bracelet on the nightstand that Louis tried to take away. It wasn’t there when he watched them screaming at one another at the top of their lungs, words coming out in muffles through the glass. It wasn’t there when Louis tried to embrace his lover and earned a shove to the floor. It wasn’t there when Harry made a mess of that bedroom, tossing everything he could at Louis and, for once, Niall could read his lips as he screamed for Louis to “get out.” Niall wanted to leave his garden that morning and go up to Harry’s room to comfort him when he spotted him fall to the floor of his bedroom in tears, but he couldn’t because Louis was ringing his doorbell.

          From his garden, Niall watched over several days how Louis packed up his things and moved them down to Zayn’s. Their explanation that he and Harry had a fight meant a lot more to Niall and Zayn than it did to Liam who still hadn’t seemed to accept that they were more than just friends. But Niall knew, and though he hadn’t seen anything, Zayn believed it. This wasn’t their usual spat where one had taken a joke too far or started to get on the other’s nerves when they didn’t want to be bothered. This was a fight they wouldn’t be recovering from anytime soon.

          Niall didn’t watch Harry from his window for several days after that. He didn’t have to. Harry spent those days posted right next to Niall wherever Niall was. If Niall went to the store, he had Harry right next to him tossing five different kinds of cereal in the basket. If Niall went to work in his garden, Harry took it upon himself to fetch the watering can. If Niall turned on a movie, Harry went to the kitchen to pop popcorn. If Niall went to sleep, Harry fell into his bed right next to him. But Niall didn’t complain. It was apparently comforting for Harry, and comforting him was all Niall really wanted to do. He and Harry had just started to settle into their routine unbeknownst to anyone else when it was time to tour.

          And on that tour, it became Harry and Louis again. They made their jokes that only they understood and did their weird little antics they wouldn’t pull with anyone else. But when he could break away from Louis for longer than five minutes, Harry was at Niall’s side. Harry and Louis’ friendship was there again, but Harry was still hurting, and so, Niall spent the entire tour trying to pick up the pieces of Harry’s heart that Louis broke all the while Louis was acting as if nothing had happened between them. He helped mend Harry, made him better again and made him believe he could find love again. And he did.

          Sometime after tour ended, the flat next door to Harry’s came up for sale. Louis didn’t move into it. Louis didn’t have to. Everything Louis had brought to Zayn’s found its way back to his and Harry’s flat and back to Harry’s bedroom. While he weeded, they were unpacking boxes and bags. While Niall strummed his guitar between sips of tea, they kissed and cuddled on Harry’s bed. Through that window, Niall watched as Harry found love again, but it wasn’t the way Niall hoped. He was still left on the outside looking in, and what hurt the most was that Harry now knew he was there.  


**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: [livewhilewereforeveryoung](http://livewhilewereforeveryoung.tumblr.com)


End file.
